fllGHT International, 14 December 1967 1009
SPORT
AND
BUSINESS
Cessna
in Europe
The new 150,000 sq ft factory built by Cessna's French affiliate, Reims Aviation, at
Reims Prunay. More details below
EUROPE CONTINUES TO BE the biggest export market for theCessna Aircraft Company, now comfortably establishedas the world's largest producer of light aircraft. With the
commissioning of an entirely new factory and airfield at Reims
Prunay, France, by Cessna's affiliate Reims Aviation, the level
of European business should continue to grow.
The annual European zone sales and service conference held
m Brussels last week was attended by 38 Cessna dealers from
24 countries. The number of sales outlets has grown rapidly
since 1963, when Cessna adopted a policy of direct distribution
to local dealers. In 1963 there were five distributors and seven
dealers, and they sold a total of 115 aircraft. By a significant
coincidence, the total number of aircraft sold in 1967—368—
is in direct proportion to the increase in the number of sales
outlets. It is thus easy to understand the Cessna policy of
encouraging new dealer agreements—one which most existing
dealers privately regard with mixed feelings but publicly accept
cheerfully, acknowledging it to be to the benefit of light
aviation at large. (A sixth British dealership, incidentally, has
just been arranged—to operate from Fair Oaks, Surrey.)
Claimed to be the most modern in Europe, the Reims
Prunay factory will put Model 150, 172 and Rocket production
under one roof with an output potential of 1,000 aircraft per
annum (expected by 1975). The output of French Cessnas has
already reached nearly 400 aircraft a year, with a grand total
of some 800 built since the operation started in 1963. In the
light of the latest expansion (the company is now worth
NF3 million), French Government support can be described as
positive—the nationalised Nord Aviation still holds a 41 per
cent share in Reims Aviation and this has been boosted to
match the Cessna bid, which under French law cannot exceed
49 per cent (the remaining ten per cent is owned by French
private individuals, including M Pierre Closterman, general
manager of the company).
At a press conference following the dealers' meeting in
Brussels, M Clostermann described the new factory. It was, he
said, fully air conditioned and had non-shadow lighting and
overhead cranes. Construction had taken only six months from
virgin land, and there was now a 3,000ft hard runway; within
two years, he hoped, it would be an important general-aviation
airfield, with Customs, motel and servicing facilities for air-
frames, engines, propellers and electronics. There was room to
increase the floor area from the present 150,000 sq ft to nearly
200,000 sq ft.
Some 450 workers are employed on assembly, from shaped
panels and equipment supplied from Cessna's main plant in
Wichita. Reims Aviation looks to a demand for 150 aircraft a
year before it can consider buying the assembly jigs and
tools from Cessna for another aircraft type. Initial discussions
are in hand with the French Air Force for possible production
of a twin-engined liaison aircraft; it may be a development of
the Cessna 411 with turboprop engines.
To fill the Cessna Company's middle-price four-seater gap in
Europe, the Reims Rocket has been produced by putting a 210
h.p. Continental IO-360-D (supplied by Rolls-Royce) in a 172
airframe—the same combination as the T.41 produced for the
US Army. Plans call for 60 Rockets to be produced in 1968,
and dealers have already ordered 39. The price ex-Reims is
$17,500 (approximately £8,500 delivered in UK).
Reims Rocket data Powerplant: one 210 h.p. Continental IO-310-D and a y-p propeller. Dimensions: span, 36ft 2in; length,
26ft 8.5in; height, 8ft 9in; wing area, 174 sq ft. Weights: gross,2,5001b; basic empty, 1,4101b. Accommodation: four seats plus
20 cu ft baggage or two small seats. Fuel tankage: 43 Imp gal.Performance: take-off to 50ft, 1,180; landing from 50ft; 1,250ft;
crtiise speed and consumption, 145 m.p.h. at 5.500ft burning 10.8Imp gal/hr (75 per cent power); 105 m.p.h. at 10.000ft burning
6.2 Imp gal/hr (55 per cent power); service ceiling, 17,500ft.
At o European dealers' meeting in Brussels last week Cessna announced the Reims Rocket, to fill the gap in the middle-priced four-seater
bracket in their range. (For America the gap-filler will be the new 177/Cardinal, sales of which will be confined to the US market for
'968 at least.) The Rocket marries a Model 172 airframe to a 210 h.p. Continental IO-360D. Artist's impression (above left) shows the
Rocket to be barely distinguishable from the 172. Left, a cutaway mock-up shows the spacious interior with optional rear bench seat
(or two children. Right, logical "T" layout of instruments and good positioning of optional radio and indicators. More details above